I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for supporting peer-to-peer (P2P) communication.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication content, such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks configured to support multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks. A wireless communication network may also be referred to as a wide area network (WAN).
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations (also referred to as evolved node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). In a WAN, communication by UEs typically occurs via uplink/downlink channels between the UEs and a base station. A UE is thus enabled to communicate with a base station.
However, if two UEs are in the vicinity of each other, they may be enabled to communicate directly, that is, without communicating through the base station. A UE may thus be enabled to communicate peer-to-peer (P2P), also referred to as device-to-device (D2D), with one or more other UEs.
It may be desirable to efficiently support P2P communication for UEs, such as to enable new types of services, to improve available services, such by eliminating interference, and/or to reduce the traffic load on base stations.